“The Spectacle Is a Sad One”: The Disabled Civil War Soldier in the Nineteenth-Century American Press

This chapter examines coverage of the disabled Civil War soldier in the nineteenth-century press to determine how soldiers with disabilities—as well as the nation's efforts to care for them—were represented. Based on a review of thousands of articles in national and regional newspapers published between 1863 and 1900, the research finds that humor, discomfort, and constructs of race and masculinity characterized that coverage. The chapter shows that just as the veterans’ physical suffering continued long after the war, the press was active throughout the era in debating issues related to their care and legacy, contributing to the nation's memory of the Civil War and its soldiers.